Daily Meditations
Read today's Just for Today or A Spiritual Principle A Day readings.
Just for Today
January 26, 2026 |
Self-centeredness |
| Page 26 |
| "The spiritual part of our disease is our total self-centeredness." |
| Basic Text, p. 20 |
| What is self-centeredness? It is our belief that the world revolves around us. Our wishes, our demands are the only ones worth consideration. Our self-centered minds believe they are capable of getting everything they want if only they would be left to their own devices. Self-centeredness assumes total self-sufficiency. We say that self-centeredness is the spiritual part of our disease because the self-centered mind cannot conceive of anything greater or more important than itself. But there is a spiritual solution to our spiritual malady: the Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous. The steps lead us away from self-centeredness and toward God-centeredness. We strip away our delusion of self-sufficiency by admitting our own powerlessness and seeking the aid of a Power greater than ourselves. We acknowledge the bankruptcy of our self-righteousness by admitting we've been wrong, making amends, and seeking knowledge of what's right from the God of our understanding. And we deflate our overwhelming sense of self-importance by seeking to serve others, not only ourselves. The self-centeredness afflicting our spirit can be treated with a spiritual solution: the Twelve Steps. |
| Just for Today: My guidance and my strength comes from a Higher Power, not from my own self. I will practice the Twelve Steps to become more God-centered and less self-centered. |
A Spiritual Principle a Day
January 26, 2026 |
Hope Comes with a Catch |
| Page 26 |
| "For many of us, early recovery was difficult. Facing the prospect of life without drugs can be very frightening." |
| IP #23, Staying Clean on the Outside |
| We usually think of hope as a good thing, but it comes with a catch: Realizing our hopes involves going through change. Some things seem better when we're wishing for them than when we get them. No matter how green the grass looks on the other side, change always seems to stir up a lot of fear and anxiety. One member shared that he struggled when he first came to NA because he had a hard time with the idea of living the rest of his life without drugs. "I heard addicts share that they could manage a day without using, and I realized that all I had to try was not using just for today. They gave me hope." Our Basic Text mentions this same principle: "Most of us can do for eight or twelve hours what seems impossible for a longer period of time. If the obsession or compulsion becomes too great, put yourself on a five minute basis of not using. Minutes will grow to hours, and hours to days . . ." Many of us had wishes about getting clean before we came to NA, but we didn't see how a life without drugs could possibly become a reality for us until we heard addicts just like us share how they had done it. Hope begins when we shift our vision from the seemingly endless journey ahead to the few steps in front of us. Life without drugs seems impossible, but five minutes without drugs is doable. The same is true for any change we wish for in our lives: getting out of treatment or jail, changing jobs or moving, switching sponsors, or becoming more open and vulnerable with our partner. Imagining the new life that awaits us on the other side of any big change can be intimidating, but we don't have to live that new life all at once. We talk to members who have made similar changes, and they share their experience with us. We find hope by listening to other addicts. We begin to see how we can get through the next five minutes, the next few hours, the rest of the day. As it turns out, the grass is greener where we water it. |
| ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— |
| The difference between wishing and hoping is that hope lets me see a way forward. I will share a wish with my sponsor and ask for help in transforming it into hope. |